Our Diary of the little changes we are creating in the lives of Melghat adivasis

Friday, 4 April 2014

5 Hours Jam

Eyes are among the most important organs of the human body. Without the tiny eye balls one cannot see the beauty of the world. To help people see this beautiful world & make life easier, MAHAN regularly conducts eye surgery camps with the help of like-minded people, organisations, doctors etc.There are lot of things need to be done as pre work before such operations. Here is one of not so unusual experience during pre work.Before surgery camp, patients have to be screened. This screening generally happens at villages as due to unavailability of approach roads, lack of means of transportation, lack of awareness & forest area, patients cannot visit hospital.Dr. Kavita was heading towards one of such villages in tribal part of MP (Madhya Pradesh) state. Team had to cross the river but there was no bridge on the river. As water level had gone drastically down, driver drove the ambulance through the river water but unfortunately it got jammed into river, (in photo below). With some hard efforts, team of driver Fugansa, Rajkumar & Krishna got ambulance out of river. After reaching to village Kavita completed screening.

Next day same team again went to similar area & through same river. However this time experience was different & horrifying. Vehicle got stuck into river & it took 5 hours to take it out with the help of nearby tribal & tractor. Spending 5 hours in forest in aloof area with no nearby assistance is difficult to explain but life long experience. Subsequently team went to village, did screening & returned back.

However the pathetic condition of patients before treatment & post treatment improvement in their daily life, make team forget horrifying obstacles & give work satisfaction.During this camp an old blind poor tribal lady was weeping in the operation theatre and sharing her woes about her daughter in law who used to scold her because she could not look after her grand-children. Another patient said that her son and daughter in law had arranged to keep a four year old grandson to take care of her, when they go for daily wages. The grandson, who himself was dependent on others, often used to play outdoors, rather than taking care of his sightless grandmother.

Fifty seven of thepoorest of the poor neglected tribal from the remote places of Dharni region and Madhya Pradesh were benefited by the camp.